Tweet
2019 Western & Southern Open...ATP 1000...Cincinnati, USA
The cobwebs and the blur are starting to disappear. The dreadful hangover after the all consuming, totally depleting Wimbledon final between Novak Djokovic (the most boring number one player ever) and Roger Federer (the lone surviving link to classic tennis) is finally dissipating. You can only do so much for a hangover and basically you just have to wait until it loses it's hold on you. In this case a bit of "the hair of the dog that bit you" will be a great start.
The draw:
The very first thing that I look for is Roger Federer's name. I found it down in the 17th line so I am resolved that this is a real tennis tournament. Now the entire draw sheet takes on new meaning. It's interesting just because I know he is there. Thirty-eight years of age now he is getting rather long in the tooth as it goes for professional tennis players but because of an extraordinary lack of extraordinary Roger is still in the mix. His participation may be day to day but his effect is the only redeeming thing in the game today. The rest of it is basically doo doo. Welcome to the post Roger Federer era of tennis. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Thank you Roger for entering this tournament. He's warming up for the U. S. Open and he is going to get a good taste for the tourney just in his semi-final bracket alone. Grigor Dimitrov and "Stanamite" Wawrinka have the great misfortune to have drawn each other once again for the second time in two weeks. Getting to know you...getting to know all about you. Plus you have Daniil Medvedev who is still alive in the Rogers Cup slated to play a questionable Stefanos Tsitsipas. Tsitsipas seems to have been reading too much of his own press clippings lately and is in dire danger in slipping into the malaise that is Alexander Zverev's world. The young has been. Although it just might be all developmental...with mental the operative part of the word.
At any rate each match takes on a brighter perspective just for the presence of Federer. Even if you have to wonder just how long he cares to hang in Cincinnati. He couldn't possibly want another rematch with Djokovic. To get there might be just too much of an effort to face the consequences so it will be very, very interesting to see if he opts out at the most convenient exit available. But I would love to see him play Stan Wawrinka at least one more time.
It's too bad that Roger is in the top half as the number three seed. It would have been better to see a Fafa rematch in the bottom semi-final. Roger having mastered the consummate charlatan in six of the last seven meetings. The lone victory for Nadal being a semi-final in the French Open where they played in gale force winds. I still think Roger was even money in that one if not for the wind favouring the muscle headed bully. Thank the Lord for grass though...Federer's win there in the semi was the best of all possible redemption.
You see...it's interesting. And not just because I said so.
The draw:
The very first thing that I look for is Roger Federer's name. I found it down in the 17th line so I am resolved that this is a real tennis tournament. Now the entire draw sheet takes on new meaning. It's interesting just because I know he is there. Thirty-eight years of age now he is getting rather long in the tooth as it goes for professional tennis players but because of an extraordinary lack of extraordinary Roger is still in the mix. His participation may be day to day but his effect is the only redeeming thing in the game today. The rest of it is basically doo doo. Welcome to the post Roger Federer era of tennis. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Thank you Roger for entering this tournament. He's warming up for the U. S. Open and he is going to get a good taste for the tourney just in his semi-final bracket alone. Grigor Dimitrov and "Stanamite" Wawrinka have the great misfortune to have drawn each other once again for the second time in two weeks. Getting to know you...getting to know all about you. Plus you have Daniil Medvedev who is still alive in the Rogers Cup slated to play a questionable Stefanos Tsitsipas. Tsitsipas seems to have been reading too much of his own press clippings lately and is in dire danger in slipping into the malaise that is Alexander Zverev's world. The young has been. Although it just might be all developmental...with mental the operative part of the word.
At any rate each match takes on a brighter perspective just for the presence of Federer. Even if you have to wonder just how long he cares to hang in Cincinnati. He couldn't possibly want another rematch with Djokovic. To get there might be just too much of an effort to face the consequences so it will be very, very interesting to see if he opts out at the most convenient exit available. But I would love to see him play Stan Wawrinka at least one more time.
It's too bad that Roger is in the top half as the number three seed. It would have been better to see a Fafa rematch in the bottom semi-final. Roger having mastered the consummate charlatan in six of the last seven meetings. The lone victory for Nadal being a semi-final in the French Open where they played in gale force winds. I still think Roger was even money in that one if not for the wind favouring the muscle headed bully. Thank the Lord for grass though...Federer's win there in the semi was the best of all possible redemption.
You see...it's interesting. And not just because I said so.
Comment